Could Clint Dempsey replace Yossi? | 3rd is back in Arsenal’s hands again

Welcome to Tuesday, first day back for most in the UK. Normally a cause for great sadness, not today my friends, for the weekend was kind to us! Jesus answered my Easter wish list and delivered a bounty of unrivalled goodness.

First up yesterday we watched Norwich take the lead against Spurs early on. Things were leveled amidst controversy. Holt was pulled down by King, Spurs broke and Defoe scored. It wasn’t over though. Norwich continued to ask questions and throw men forward. Their courage was rewarded when Bennet found himself in acres of space just outside the area, he moved forward, picked out the bottom corner and lashed his shot home.

Spurs hit the bar late on, but all in all, Norwich took a deserved win. Harry was amusing the press room after. He dropped Scott Parker and played 4 attackers in a 4-4-2. He kind of intimated that other people had asked him to do it, he’d always been reluctant as he doesn’t have disciplined players and yesterday proved that. Strange. I hope he’s not taking outside advice when or if he lands the England job!

The other bullet of good news was the performance Fulham put in against Chelsea at Craven Cottage. Chelsea went 1 up after some strange reffing from Clattenburg. Danny Murphy made a two footed lunge in the box, won the ball, but the ref blew up. It was a clear penalty, but at half time it emerged that he’d given the penalty for a deft touch from someone else. Turns out there was a touch. It was so tiny I’m shocked he saw it. This does throw up the age old argument… if a touch is so deft it takes Sky an hour to pick it up, how can it be strong enough to merit a penalty?

When are footballing authorities going to change this rule about being touched? It plays right into the hands of cheaters. For me, it should only be a foul if the force was enough to send you down. Going over someone’s shoelace and hiding behind contact is a disgusting abuse of the rules and it gives rugby fans the chance to mock our game… and no one likes a rugby fan having one up on you.

Anyway, Lampard buried the penalty. However, Fulham had extra in the locker. Late on Petr Cech tipped over a shot from point blank range… from the resultant corner, Dempsey angled a beauty of a header into the bottom corner.

Unbelievably this now means Newcastle find themselves back in contention for a top 4 position! They totally deserve it as well. I said a few months ago that Alan Pardew has adopted the Arsenal transfer policy of 97. He’s picked up technically gifted players from around Europe for a fraction of their true worth and he’s winning. Cisse looks a steal at £9million. Ben Arfa has been superb of late and obviously Demba Ba and Cabaye have been superb.

We’re actually in a situation now where Spurs could drop out of the top 4 along with Chelsea. Wouldn’t that be grand?

Still, we have to remember that Arsenal are as capable as any of the rest when it comes to dropping stupid points at highly inappropriate times. We have Wolves on Wednesday. Now, normally I’d talk up Wolves as potentially a good side. I’m not going to though because it’s not true. I’ve had the misfortune of watching them a few times lately and I can tell you the whole club is in a black hole of doom. The fans are booing the board, the players look like they’re on holiday and there is absolutely zero desire on show.

Their form guide is pretty impressive. They’ve lost 8 of their last 10 games and conceded 30 in the process. They really are the whipping boys of the league at the moment. The only way we’ll lose this is if we show as much complacecny as I am right now.

So guys, if you’re reading this, don’t get f*cking complacent.

Arsenal need 4 wins to qualify for the Champions League in 3rd place this year. For me, Stoke and Chelsea are the banana skins on paper. Wigan and Wolves are the banana skins if you know Arsenal. We need 100% comittement to push us over the line. I really hope the players know that and I hope the manager drills that into their mindsets all week. We’re playing free flowing football again, we’re playing with discipline and we’ve done most of the hardwork by killing off the big games with big victories. Let’s not falter with 5 games to go.

Player Watch

There was a bit of a discussion in the comments yesterday about the merits of Clint Dempsey. The American has had an industrious season with Fulham and he’s bagged a number of goals in the process. He scored his 16th yesterday against Chelsea despite not having the best game. Is he technically gifted enough to play for Arsenal? Some would say not. However, that’s not what I like about his game. I like the never say die attitude. I like the fact he’ll put his head on anything and I like the fact that he excels in a pretty average set up.

Dempsey and Murphy were asked what had changed with him this year with regards to goals. Dempsey said it was luck, Murphy waded in and said it was sheer grit and effort on the training ground. He said he’d never worked with someone who puts so much into every training session. If we’re looking for someone to replace Yossi Benayoun this summer, surely we should be looking at this guy?

Days like today prove the FA is completely useless, although I refuse to believe people are THAT stupid. Dalglish has a very good point with the integrity issue he brought up.

How is the QPR player’s red card no rescinded for a huge offside/dive call? How is Balotelli not banned for assaulting Song? Ref saw it? Why don’t you tell us which one and punish him for it, fucking useless muppets.

RR: I can’t say I rly disagree with you that much except that the challenges increases exponentially the further up the top you move. The investment and time needed to lift a team from 10:th to 5-6 is something totally different from what’s needed going from third to 1:st.

Also the midle easatern mentality is usually somewhat different than the short sightnes of, lets say russians. Another year and another 1-200 mil and I think it will be another story…

i get what you are saying with the difficulty of moving from 2nd to 1st but those chav manc have been investing millions for over 5 years now. Remember it started with Thaksin all those yunks ago. I think jose won the league after ranieri finished second the season before.

RR: I’m not sayin they have gotten the best out of their sterlings but I think they’ve done it rather good so far, especially if you don’t plan to be a one hit wonder. I guess it all comes down to what the expectations and the plan is..if they’ve planned it for 2014-2015 campaing or if they planned it for last year.

Personally I think they focused on the league this year with CL a bonus to get a real assessment of where they’re at with the project. No one can expect a league win a specific year no matter how much money you spend but over a period of lets say 3 seasons you should be able to grab atleast one.

Johnson belongs in a mid table team with a tactic that puts crosses to good use, lets say Everton with a Cahill in form or something like that.
It’s easy to say he never get the chance but don’t forget there are a couple of trainings a week where you get every possibility to earn a start too…

Suga3: Decency is unfortunately a quality not appreciated enuff theese days

RR: yes, but my point is that it wasn’t until this year that they had reached the platform to challenge from. The years n millions before that was aimed at getting them there, this year and the next ones will be about claiming it.

My work place is a scouser infested inferno..hence I’m quitting in 2 weeks ofc…some of ‘em has been rambling on about Rafa too but it sounds more like desperation than anything serious.

The fat chick look pretty good after a bucket of Peronis while standing besides the 2 dollar whore with multiple STD:s…doesn’t mean the fat chick is megan fox…

Sorry DA I disagree with you there. If you’re saying moving from 13th to 4th is easier than moving from 2nd to 1st then it should take 5 years to reach a position where you can challenge especially in a shit premier league where your squad is clearly better than everyone else’.

Newcastle might finish 4th (and that is my prediction) but they’d have made a profit in the process moving from 12th the previous season.

Ricky: I’m sorry but that’s just not true. Gerv delivered during the fall,which is the big difference beteween him and the other you mention, come christmas he was our top (almost the only) assist maker in the team. On top of that he’s one of the only players, atleast wingers, who can actually take a guy on and make it more times than not.
He fell below a bit during the christmas games which is completely natural for players coming from other leagues that has winter holidays.

Then after AU he hasn’t been the same…which isn’t entirely unheard of either.

RR: Yes, I see what you mean but your logic implies that the setting has been the same during all that time which it hasn’t different owners, managers etc and some fck ups along the way. I still think the current set up is on the right track, even though I naively hate the obcene “money way” they’ve used and that most of the inefficiency over the course of the “surge” belongs in the previous years.

The result over the last 2-3 years (counting this season) is probably what anyone can expect with unlimited resources with perhaps minor varioations,

DA the ‘setting’ as you put may have changed but it has changed in their favour – Abramovich is more reticent about spending, manure are the shittiest they’ve been in a long time, Arsenal? well you know the story,Lerner at Villa has stopped spending etc. They have no excuse. First they need to get a better manager. A better manager would win the league with the same set of players

I would rather Gervinho scored some of his chances rather than miss them. Its not about not wanting him to get assists, but as a striker he should be able to finish properly. I dont buy into the excuses of “he needs to settle”. You dont forget how to finish just because you move to a different league.

RR: With “setting” I was refering to the internal conditions and not the state of the league which of course, if anything, has helped them.

As for winning the league I think Mancini is just as likely winning the league next season witht he same crop of players as any other manager, except for perhaps Mou. What I mean is that in order to win the league a specific year there’s so many other things that need to go your way apart from who’s managing and who you have in your team, that are more or less out of your control.

The team roster as well as the manager is of course the biggest parts, it would be silly to state something else, but it just takes you to the point of challenging…but the last 2-3 percent that makes or breaks the season is things like injuries, fixtuer sheduele..refs apparently etc etc etc. Hence the 3 year plan…get yourself to a challenging position and stay there over a period of 3 years and you should have gotten at least 1 PL trohpy

Daglish is a disrespectful scumbag and if I was Andy Burton i’d refuse to ever interview the classless manager.. Daglish displaying his passive aggressiveness as always. On to Arsenal, Wolves tomorrow expecting a thrashing and I’m not being optimistic we are in a rich vein of form and Wolves are simply piss poor… on the other hand Djourou starting tomorrow fuck sake

“Trotters boss Owen Coyle labelled the challenge, which happened in the build-up to Arsenal’s crucial equaliser at the start of the second half, as “akin to assault”, leaving the midfielder with severe ligament damage, and perhaps even a break.”

I remember that Mark Davies incident well. He was playing again within a week and a half. Some people stoop so low to lie, cheat and deceive.

Stu: Ofc he should score more, hence the next year comment.
gerv never forgott how to score, he never knew it which was well known before he came here. It’s been his biggest flaw during his whole carreer…the finishing touch. However, after a year alongside one of the best finishers in a year and I think he’ll blossom.

Compared to Wally for instance, gerv already has just about everything he needs up until that final finish…but at that point he lacks the calmness required. Now while Wally fixed his finishing over the last 2 seasons, he still doesn’t have the links in between whereas I ffeel gerv has the rest and with more of a scoring boot on he’ll make a rly good name for himself.

Also, it’s the bigger picture, like I said I think he rly complements the team with his ability to take someone on..compared to last season where we seemed to get stuck a whole lot more with Arsh sleepin and Wally making his nutty runs down the field

Hi Gunners. . . .My first comment really on this site. . . Been reading regularly though and its really great . . . . What i was wondering is why not opt for Maxi Rodriguez instead of Dempsey , he is a good player on left side . . And i have seen him from Atletico Days . Might come handy against lower teams . .

so, in a weekend where a relegation threatened team had three points taken away through bad reffing, and a diver gets a penalty and a player sent off, the fa actually got one retrospective punishment right, they got ivanovic punching the wigan player and banned him for three games, one of which is the one against us.

as for the wigan/chelsea game, the linesman who missed the offsides was dropped for the blackburn game. in a fair world the fa should have voided the game and either given each team a point or had it replayed.

Actually, it doesn’t necessarily say atkinson saw anything, just one of the Ref’s. Also, from the two rambling paragraphs I also think they’re tryin to say that someone saw them run into eachother but didn’t see actual kick.

But then again, tryin to interpret that decision is about as easy as tryin to interpret 2500 year old bible manuscripts in acient yiddish.

It’s not Far from the Truth to say Sahin is an Attack minded CM, i watched a lot of BVB Games Last season and That was where he Played Lars Bender was always the DM but yes he loves to drop Deep Like Pirlo,he does that when they’re winning and need to close a game or counter attacking i was sad to see him go to Madrid for about €8million that was f*cking cheap, i absolutely wanted us to get him we would never have missed Fabregas if we had him i’lld take him right now, even at gotze’s expense if that means we get to commit our Remaining Transfer fund to the purchase of Hazard, vertohgen and Mvilla. Poldi is in the Bag, i don’t want holtby or Suarez give me experience over potential right now we’ve had enough of the potiental dossage for 7years.

No offence but Reading your comments at times i get the feeling you’re now actually a man united fan but you can’t quite stop contributing to any arsenal debate because deep down you still love the team, the way you stand-up for united whenever anyone says anything about them, truly remarkable even ferggie will be proud. I won’t go as far as to say the FA are bent on ensuring that united wins the league but you do have to question their sturbon refusal to reverse that Dubious Derry Dismissal Decision are they actually Saying it wasn’t actually an offside and that it wasn’t a Dive!? Or is it that rescinding it will get people talking about how united are consistently getting referees help in the Run-in? (Remember the fulham penalty Decision just last week?) In its attempt not to be seen as Favouring united the FA is making itself look like a complete Moron, the Kompany challenge on Nani also springs to mind, i’m quite sure if both decisions were against any other Team they would have had the Ban Rescinded. I don’t completely agree with Viera but he clearly struck a nerve with what he said judging from the waves of critiscism he got from the manc-fergie-loving press and united players, the funny thing was he wasn’t even refering to united he meant the big and succesful teams in the EPL!

He’s holding out for a hundred, I say whisk him off to the euros, let him bolster his price a bit, then get shot off him and buy Hazard.. Obviously this a far-fetched dream of mine! In my eyes he is a squad member and a fringe player, not good enough for the Arsenal. Gives 1 game in 5! Not worth 100pw!

Gambon, it’s the name of the game theese days. Very little of the reward is based on actual contribution I guess…it just a relativity game.

But like I said, the 80pw package offered seems resonable and I’m sure the guy will sign unless wenger chickens out. here are rly not much suggesting otherwise. He’s a family guy so don’t think he want’s to move, he’s never struck me as the adventurus type so don’t think he rly want to leave the club where he gets cuddled either. Also, the clubs situation is very different from the Fab/Nasri debacle..if it’s on place in the whole team where we can fford to play hardball it’s for the winger spot.

David andreassen, love ur take on gervinho vs walcott. The skills gerv has can never be developed at this point by theo. Where as, gerv can improve his scoring a little bit. I think he had ten goals fifteen assists at lille. But ge is clearly dangerous. Much harder to defend. Andchelps tracking back. The stupid acn really hurt his season. Along wit red card w barton.
i really think the boss should ask him to skio the next acn, because gerv himself admitted it hurt his season with us. He is a very goodwinger, he will do well when he plays consistently.